Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, President Donald Trump‘s doctor, told The New York Times in several interviews that the president is taking medication to treat three conditions, including one designed to promote hair growth.
The medications include finasteride, a prostate-treatment drug that’s also marketed to individuals for male-pattern baldness, a drug to treat rosacea (“common antibiotic” tetracycline) and a statin to control high blood cholesterol and lipids (blood fats). The finasteride seemingly explains Trump’s low levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a prostate cancer marker, since the drug lowers such antigens. Trump has often taken good-natured ribbing about his hair, perhaps most memorably on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” back in September when Trump let Fallon mess up his full head of hair to laughs and applause from the audience. Trump also takes a baby aspirin every day to lower his heart attack risk, according to Bornstein.
These interviews come after Bornstein released two letters about Trump’s health, one in December 2015 and another in September 2016.
In the first, he wrote, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
White House officials did not respond to The New York Times regarding Bornstein’s latest claims nor whether he is currently Trump’s doctor. U.S. News reached out to the White House to independently verify the report, but did not hear back before this was published.
Bornstein, who the Times says was “moody” during parts of the interviews, says he and the president haven’t had contact since he assumed the role nor has the White House asked for Trump’s medical records. He did add that if he were Trump’s White House doctor, “he doubted that he would include in Mr. Trump’s annual checkup any psychometric tests as a base line for potential dementia,” The New York Times reports. This is despite Trump’s father having Alzheimer’s in addition to experts suggesting political leaders have tests like this done.
He also discussed a number of concerns about Trump’s health with the Times, including a question about Trump’s characterization of himself as a ” germaphobe.” Bornstein says he hasn’t talked to Trump about this but that “we are very careful to keep the examining rooms spotlessly clean, which we do anyway.” Following exams, however, “he always stands there and changes the paper on the table himself,” according to Bornstein.
Trump called himself a germaphobe as recently as last month in a press conference, though he denied having a fear of germs in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter back in 2015.
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Report: Trump’s Doctor Talks About Medications the President Is Taking originally appeared on usnews.com
